Mgr. Petra Johana Poncarová, PhD.
Executive editor of the journal Litteraria Pragensia. Her research focuses on Scottish literature and culture, especially on modern writing in Scottish Gaelic (Derick Thomson, Sorley MacLean, Tormod Caimbeul, Ruaraidh Erskine of Mar), and on British literature of the 20th and 21st century. She is the secretary of the International Association for the Study of Scottish Literatures and co-director of Ionad Eòghainn MhicLachlainn | National Centre for Gaelic Translation, and Gaelic advisor of FRLSU: Forum for Research on the Languages of Scotland and Ulster. In 2022, she was the manager of the 3rd World Congress of Scottish Literatures. Apart from academic work, she has also been active as a translator, reviewer, Gaelic poet, and co-editor of the Gaelic strand of the Glasgow Review of Books.
Selected Publications
Monographs
Critical Editions
Essays in Academic Journals (selection)
- “Deireadh an Fhoghair and the Environment,” Litteraria Pragensia 33:66 (December 2023)
- “Derick Thomson and Ireland,” Litteraria Pragensia 33:65 (July 2023)
- “Addressing Devastation in Gaelic Literature of the Clearances,” The Bottle Imp 31: Dystopias and Post-Apocalypses (March 2023)
- “Spatial and Sonic Monstrosities in William Hope Hodgson’s ‘The Whistling Room,'” AUC Philologica 2 (2022)
- “Old Women, Dreams, and Reversed Revivals: Derick Thomson’s Gaelic Short Stories,” Scottish Literary Review 13:2 (2021)
- “Tři pohledy na Posvátný hlad Barryho Unsworthe,” Svět literatury 64:XXXI (2021)
- “Derick Thomson and the Ossian Controversy,” Anglica 29:3 (2020)
- “Eadar Canaan is Garrabost (Between Canaan and Garrabost): Religion in Derick Thomson’s Lewis Poetry,” Studies in Scottish Literature 46:1 (2020)
- “A Fitting Offering to the Gaelic Thalia or Melpomene: Ruaraidh Erskine of Mar and Drama in Scottish Gaelic,” Litteraria Pragensia 30:59 (2020)
- “Snake Women and Hideous Sensations: The Strange Case of Gaelic Detective Short Stories by Ruaraidh Erskine of Mar,” Scottish Literary Review 12:1 (2020)
- “An Druim bho Thuath: Tormod Caimbeul’s Last Vista of Gaelic Scotland,” Litteraria Pragensia 28:54 (2018)
- “The Gael Cosmopolite: Tormod Caimbeul and Shrapnel (2006),” Litteraria Pragensia 27:53 (2017)
- “Sorley MacLean’s Other Clearance Poems,” Studies in Scottish Literature 43:1 (2017)
Chapters in Collective Monographs (selection)
- “‘Many more remains of ancient genius’: Approaches to Authorship in the Ossian Controversy,” From Shakespeare to Autofiction: Approaches to Authorship after Barthes and Foucault, ed. Martin Procházka (UCL Press, 2024)
- “Derick Thomson’s An Rathad Cian (The Far Road, 1970): Modern Gaelic Poetry of Place between Introspection and Politics”, Place and Space in Scottish Literature, ed. M. Szuba and J. Wolfreys (Palgrave MacMillan, 2019)
- “The Best Scottish Gaelic Novel? Reception and Analysis of Tormod Caimbeul’s Deireadh an Fhoghair“, Imagining Scottishness: European and Domestic Representations, ed. A. Korzeniowska and I. Szymanska (Semper, 2017)
- “Hallaig Sorleyho MacLeana. Báseň a místo”, Hlasy míst: prostor, místo a geografie ve světové poezii, ed. K. Soukupová and M. Špína (CUFA Press, 2016)
- “‘Nuair a Dh’fhalbhas a’ Ghàidhlig’ (When Gaelic Goes): Gaelic in the Poetry of Derick Thomson”, Scottish Culture: Dialogue and Self-Expression, ed. A. Korzeniowska and I. Szymanska (Semper, 2016)
- “A Tale of a City: Edwin Muir and Prague”, Scotland in Europe / Europe in Scotland: Links – Dialogues – Analogies, ed. A. Korzeniowska and I. Szymanska (Semper, 2014)
Co-edited Journal Volumes
- “Literature and the Environment,” Litteraria Pragensia 33:66 (2023), with Robin MacKenzie
- “Ireland and Scotland: Cultural Intersections Across the Irish Sea,” Litteraria Pragensia 33:65 (2023), with Radvan Markus
- “Migration and Intercultural Communication,” Litteraria Pragensia 31:61 (2021), with Martin Procházka
- “Celtic Languages in a Globalised World,” Litteraria Pragensia 30:59 (2020), with Radvan Markus
- “Irish-Language and Scottish Gaelic Literatures: A Global Context,” Litteraria Pragensia 28:54 (2018), with Radvan Markus
- “Cultural Exchanges in Scottish Literature,” Litteraria Pragensia 27:53 (2017), with Martin Procházka
Translations (selection)
Invited Lectures and Talks
- “Gaelic and Scots in the 20th and 21st Centuries: Connections, Inspirations, and the Role of New Users,” Association for Scottish Literature Annual Lecture, Scottish Parliament, 19 February 2025
- “Masculinity in Ruaraidh Erskine’s Short Stories in the Context of Fin-de-siècle Detective Fiction,” Association for Scottish Literary Studies, Annual Symposium, 26 November 2022
- “Ruaraidh Erskine, Derick Thomson, and Structures of the Gaelic Revival,” Scottish Revival Network (online seminar), 26 March 2022
- “Scottish Literature in the 20th and 21st Century: Languages, Trends, Personalities”, University of Hradec Králové, 26 October 2021
- “A’ comharrachadh Ruaraidh MhicThòmais (A celebration of Derick Thomson),” video lecture with Professor Meg Bateman and Dr Anne Frater, 14 October 2021
- “Sgeulachdan ghoirid le Ruaraidh MacThòmais,” Glasgow Gaelic Society / Comann Gàidhlig Ghlaschu, 23 October 2021 (online)
- “Why Gaelic Matters,” University of Warsaw, 10 May 2021 (online)
- “Ruaraidh Erskine of Mar and Derick Thomson: Gaelic Innovators,” University of Glasgow, 18 June 2019
- “Modern Scottish Gaelic Literature,” University of Hradec Králové, 8 November 2017
Awards
